Book XXIV

.

Amid the lamentations of the people the corpse was borne through the streets to the royal palace, where it was placed on a magnificent couch. Then Andromache and Queen Hecuba approached the body and wept aloud, each in turn uttering words of grief. Helen, too, came to mourn over Hector, and she spoke of his constant kindness and tenderness to her.

"O Hector, who wert dearest to my heart Of all my husband's brothers,--for the wife Am I of godlike Paris, him whose fleet Brought me to Troy,--would I had sooner died! And now the twentieth year is past since first I came a stranger from my native shore, Yet have I never heard from thee a word Of anger or reproach. And when the sons Of Priam, and his daughters, and the wives Of Priam's sons, in all their fair array, Taunted me grievously, or Hecuba Herself,--for Priam ever was to me A gracious father,--thou didst take my part With kindly admonitions, and restrain Their tongues with soft address and gentle words. Therefore my heart is grieved, and I bewail Thee and myself at once,--unhappy me! For now I have no friend in all wide Troy,-- None to be kind to me: they hate me all."

BRYANT, _Iliad_,